Let's get the d'uh factor out of the way now: Fans of the first two games will find much to love in this sequel. They'll also find that some of the shortcomings the series has been known for persist here. The pathfinding and one-man assault woes are still present and the title's graphics still leave a lot to be desired. We always say that graphics aren't as important as gameplay but they are still important. The depth of races and units in Warlords Battlecry 3 is enough to fill three other lesser RTS games. This type of detail and breadth is usually only found in historical games like Age of Empires and its spiritual descendants Rise of Nations and Empire Earth. I'm quite satisfied with the current game but next time I'd like it to be a little smarter and quite a bit prettier.

This is a decent game, and if it was given a graphics facelift, probably could be top title. As a real time strategy engine, time seems to have passed this by somewhat. But fans of this genre should pick the game up, it certainly has a fine level of depth, and nice, easy game play. It will be interesting to see if there is a WB4, and if they finally get the AI to attack buildings instead of walls, a persistent problem in this series.

Finally, the game's multiplayer component still has some teething issues, because we had numerous problems connecting to Enlight's matchmaking service. We did get the game running in a network session, but the huge number of factions in the game is sure to offer lots of logistical challenges--aside from the fact that players will learn to strategically adapt to different foes in a short amount of time. The end result is that this otherwise solid real-time strategy game comes off feeling a bit dated. And though we admire the new adventure-style campaign, we wish the rest of the game had been given an equally innovative overhaul.

Unfortunately. Battlecry III is going to be a lot less appealing to new players because of some critical fumbling on its way to the retail shelves. At press time. Enlight’s multiplayer matching service still wasn’t working, and the networking code made it hard to get games with more than two players going, even on a LAN. Factor in some disappointing bugs and a tendency to crash to the desktop, and you can imagine a lot of people opting just to stick with WarCraft. Then there’s the issue of the incomplete documentation. Significant info missing from the manual, and important reference files were left off the CD and still aren’t available online. Infinite Interactive (née SSG) used to be known for conscientious customer support and thorough documentation. If it’s not careful with releases like these, the company is going to be known for making sure its excellent games never achieve the sort of success they deserve.

I’m vastly disappointed at this release, like the developers had one surge of creativity for Warlords Battlecry five years ago and have been coasting on fumes since then. It’s fun, but so was WB2. It feels dated, especially graphically, and with the cantankerous pathfinding and confusing multiplayer, it seems like they’ve taken a step backwards instead of forwards.

The Warlords Battlecry series is a veritable toy box of a real-time strategy game. It's crammed with a colorful collection of stuff that you can throw together and play with in a hundred different ways. The gameplay isn't about careful balance so much as it's about sheer variety, an inviting sea of strengths and weaknesses and different tactics that may or may not work depending on who else is playing. Did the slow, stolid dwarves beat the stuffing out of your frail fey? Next time, try rushing them with the swarm or an early army of buffed-up Plaguelord ghouls. Are you sick of Dark Elven spiders poisoning your hearty knight cavalry? Boost their armor earlier or bring along a healer hero. For every tactic, there are a dozen countertactics worth trying.

There's a lot of quality content in Warlords Battlecry III from the massive campaign, customizable skirmish battles, a random map generator, and a scenario editor. As a play-alone game, it's well worth the money, but without even moderately acceptable multiplayer support it's going to have an uphill fight to find a larger audience -- and that's a shame because it deserves better.